It is chiefly to be near me when I want you.

I have my little estates in the South, in the Bourbonnais, and near to Orleans.

I require some one to correspond with my agents, to travel perhaps to my lands when a question arises which the bailiffs cannot settle unaided." Thus he spoke for some time, and my duties, as he detailed them, sounded astonishingly light.

Indeed, he paused occasionally as if seeking to augment them by the addition of trivial household tasks.
"Madame, the Vicomtesse," he said, "will also be glad to avail herself of your services." The existence of this lady was thus made known to me for the first time.

I have wondered since why, in this conversation, we with one accord ignored the first question in such affairs--namely, the salary paid by Monsieur to his secretary.
"I should require you," he said finally, "to live in the Hotel Clericy while we are in Paris." Some years earlier, during a hunting expedition in Africa, I had stalked a lion all night and far into the following day.